John Fuller, Ed.D.

Merely wishing something not to be true does not make it so. Progressives and anarchists alike have learned this bit of wisdom that, like it or not, President Trump is their President. Americans live in a society that is permeated with not unintentional disrespect but intentional disrespect. Using vile comments about another without even a mere thought about how harmful their words may be to the other is commonplace for the progressive left. That is not the America I fought for during my 26 years of military service and my work afterwards in advancing respect and inclusion for all Americans.

The left seem to have an extremely low level of media literacy. They really need to check their confidence level of what they are espousing as the truth and reset their attitude toward eliminating boorish behavior toward others. I am all for free speech but when that free speech turns someone into a person that is intending to do me harm through verbal assaults and demeaning labels…there is a point where one must respond.

It has, what I feel has become, disquieting silence from many conservatives who feel they must take this disrespectful abuse towards them and our President without relevant responses. I am not speaking of responding in kind since doing so would lower our moral compass as well. However, what I am saying is that we must be able to maintain our respectability and composure while continuing to stand fast in our principles and values. Angry people usually will fade when an increasing amount others call them on their behavior. The tide will turn against them but only if recipients of disrespect continue to be respectful. Sounds like common sense yet it is very hard for many of us to break out the message. That message is that we will always offend anyone with anything we believe but activists can say and use verbal insults anytime they want towards us and intentionally offend without repercussion.

For example, if what we say to progressives and anarchists are things like we want our country safe and deport all illegal alien criminals, stop illegal aliens from entering our country, and it hurts their feelings, so be it. We will not attack them just espouse our viewpoints. If we say we want a health care system that is truly one that will give you health care instead of the existing imploding fallacy of one with just an insurance card with unreachable deductibles and it hurts their feelings, so be it. We still do not name call them anything but promote our beliefs. Can we find common ground? Only if respect is the order of the day form both sides and civil discourse is allowed with dialogue. Let’s go beyond disquieting silence and let others know just how we feel about certain issues. Is it taking a chance to get involved in an uncomfortable conversation? Yes, but our comfort will be much more comfortable if we choose to be civil.